Eric's market adventure(s)

[DWhatley]

I recently discussed an outside suggestion for brissle worm control with a diver/collector in the keys and he says there are some cone's that remain small and are basically no worse than anemones or some of the other stinging corals. If I can validate this, we may do some limited experiments to see if they will help in situations where the substrate is so full of worms that other sand dwellers (like jaw fish) are being negatively effected. If we experiment, we will have to also validate that the sand dwellers won't be consumed (or speared) as well.

 

[chrono_war01]

...brissle worms, ew. Speaking of worms, this reminds me of a time when me and a few neighbors were out fishing along the coastline. One of them used a worm as bait and well..hooked back a larger worm.
It was ugly, it was big and it looked like a fireworm. We went for the "Pour coke while we look for a stick so we can poke it" method. Had good fun with that thing before it managed to crawl back to the edge of the water.

 

[OB]

Ah, that must've been our old friend Allghoi Khorkhoi...

You were all extremely lucky to walk away with your lives

 

[Michael Blue]

Mongolian Deathworm?!

LOL! You learn something new everyday!

 

[chrono_war01]

..No. More like huge arsed relative of the Fireworm.

Anyway, after an entire day of not sleeping in the middle of my exam period, I have decided to visit the local fish wholesale point.

Most boats seem to just ship in fish from the fish farms off coast, lots of medium sized fish, rock cod, coral trout, groupers, pompanos, juvenile, some blue-water fish, eels and sweetlips and such. I presume that they were farmed due to lack of bodily injuries. There's also smaller rabbitfish and baitfish caught with nets.
Amongst them are crabs and shrimp (possible food source when I keep a octo?) Also, the local fishermen caught a approx 40cm pufferfish, it was HUGE, even though its already dead and deflated.
Ceph wise, not very good, I only found a bag of 5-8 small bimac sized octos in a net. Very neat, they looked very much alive, although destined for the dinner table. Some of the smaller scale fishermen have also caught some interesting stuff, like octos. Judging from the state of the octos, they were frozen in ice water at they were caught, which means that they died a relatively painless death. There was a total of around 40-50 of these frozen octos on sale. Frozen squid in abundance, since there's nothing special, I will not elaborate on it.

 

[chrono_war01]

Looking to identify the octos in the bag, do you think it would be a good idea to buy a frozen one just to poke around and see what species it is?

 

[Steve O'Shea]

I recently discussed an outside suggestion for brissle worm control with a diver/collector in the keys and he says there are some cone's that remain small and are basically no worse than anemones or some of the other stinging corals. If I can validate this, we may do some limited experiments to see if they will help in situations where the substrate is so full of worms that other sand dwellers (like jaw fish) are being negatively effected. If we experiment, we will have to also validate that the sand dwellers won't be consumed (or speared) as well.

Dredging up stuff from the dark recesses of my mind, but are there not two basic types of cone? The fish-eating/highly toxic species with wide apertures, and the worm-eating/not-highly toxic narrow-apertured species? As long as you don't go throwing the likes of (for example, but not limited to) Conus geographus in your tank then you and your fish should be ok, and your worms would be happily munched on.

 

[Jean]

Dredging up stuff from the dark recesses of my mind, but are there not two basic types of cone? The fish-eating/highly toxic species with wide apertures, and the worm-eating/not-highly toxic narrow-apertured species? As long as you don't go throwing the likes of (for example, but not limited to) Conus geographus in your tank then you and your fish should be ok, and your worms would be happily munched on.

This is true! But I would suggest investigating shell patterning etc BEFORE you pick up the critter to check shell aperture width

J

 

[chrono_war01]

...it memory serves well ,it would not be a Geographic Cone. But still highly dangerous, looked like something from Discovery Channel in the top 10 most venomous speices thing.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Anything like this Eric?

 

[chrono_war01]

Possibly, my memory isn't all that clear. But it seems pretty close. Probably a bit sharper at the end.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

There are so very many species of cone. Not all are a worry/threat to you. Next time if you can take a photo (even if they don't allow cameras in there, sneak your phone in). Most cones are taken and killed for shell collectors; I don't know whether they are worth more or less in the so-called live-animal trade, but I would imagine the live-cone trade market was considerably smaller than the dead shell trade.

 

[chrono_war01]

Because I utterly screwed up my sleeping pattern with coffee and the inter net, I went to the local harbor/fish wholesale market. Didn't see too many wholesale action on LIVE cephs, but saw entire boxes of frozen squid of all sizes. HOWEVER, on a separate occasion saw "octos in a mesh bag" (mentioned in some post before this one, or have I?) So I guess it's just not "octo season".

Anyway, asides from the dead squid, saw various smaller amounts of other cephs, like dead 3 inch mantle length cuttles and all sizes of octos, frozen.
Presumably locally caught due to the much smaller catch size and much more random animals (I doubt butterfly fish is a main staple in any culture

I bought a one that had a mantle length of 15cm (6 inches?), brown/reddish color and obviously alive in the name of cuttlegirl and TONMOcon II and had them dump it back. People stared and said I was crazy.

Total cost of octo? 20HKD or 2.6USD.

I tried asking a old lady about her bucketful of frozen octos to see if they were caught locally. She refused and said that she was very busy. Shame, I would've paid a large sum to be able to go out and see their fishing operations.

Donations still gladly accepted. ..Sorry, had to say it because my personal "research" funds are running low.

6USD left from Paypal account. (Money still in account, I used the HKD equivalent first because extracting money from Paypal takes like...2USD per transaction.)

 

[cuttlegirl]

I bought a one that had a mantle length of 15cm (6 inches?), brown/reddish color and obviously alive in the name of cuttlegirl and TONMOcon II and had them dump it back. People stared and said I was crazy.

Cuddly thanks you!

 

[chrono_war01]

Since it's summe time, I'm going to see if I could tag along with the fisherfolks if they're going out, I might need some sponsering though, if I can get enough cash, I could probably put up some vids instead of just photos.